


Scavenger

by SenselessWorks



Series: From Crait to Exegol [2]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Armitage Hux Being An Asshole, Badass Rey, Force Bond (Star Wars), Mind Control, One Shot, Sad Kylo Ren, Scavenger Rey (Star Wars), Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:20:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24055060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SenselessWorks/pseuds/SenselessWorks
Summary: One shot.  The bond has been closed for a while since Crait, not that Kylo is counting the time of course.  When he gets a brief glimpse of her, he wonders what she is up to.  And rather like a creepy stalker, when he gets evidence of what she was up to he just has to watch the show.Same universe as my Fic "The New Jedi", but preceeds it.  Generally canon-compliant.  Brief mention of suicidal thought, implied depression.  Hey, we all know Kylo's a fucking mess.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey
Series: From Crait to Exegol [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1739167
Comments: 2
Kudos: 30





	Scavenger

Kylo Ren could not recall the last time he had a full night's sleep. Certainly it was before he became Snoke's apprentice. Definitely before _Skywalker_ had lit that sabre above Ben Solo's head and tried to _kill_ him. In fact, he was pretty sure he hadn't had a decent night's sleep long before he'd been sent away to Luke. Short of the rare injury serious enough to see him in a medicated slumber, he hadn't slept more than four hours most nights in almost two decades.

He'd hoped, now that he was no longer being tortured by his Master, that decent sleep might be something he could embrace.

Unfortunately, it wasn't to be.

The first night after Rey's rejection of him, he'd been completely unable to sleep. Too keyed up. Too angry. _Too lonely_. _Hurt_.

And he had tossed and turned for hours thinking about her. Thinking about how he hadn't even realised she was on the Falcon when he gave the order to shoot it out of the sky. So angry at the kriffing ship and the hurtful memories it brought up, he'd just wanted to destroy it. Initially, when he'd made that discovery, he tried to tell himself he didn't care that she was on it. She was a Resistance member, a _scavenger_ from that nowhere planet, a nobody and he was now the S _upreme Leader_. But when he had finally been able to seek his bed, all he could think about was her. Her smile, and how she had been so full of hope, and then how she had cried because he wouldn't follow her. He had offered her _his_ hand, to freely give her a seat beside him despite the fact that she hadn't earned it like he had. And then she had _rejected_ him.

Kylo seethed as he was reminded of a million childhood hurts and dark whispers that had told him how unwanted he was, how unable he'd be to live up to Vader. Ben Solo had been weak. Kylo was strong. And yet that scavenger had sought to find that weak memory, showed preference for him, and had called him _Ben_. So they'd fought again, over Vader's Jedi saber, and when he had come to she was gone.

He'd seen her again, briefly, and wordlessly begged her not to leave. But then she slammed close the boarding ramp to the Falcon, and with it their bond.

And now, it's been six standard weeks, four days, 11 hours, 32 minutes and a handful of seconds since he saw her last. Not that he was counting f course. No flashes of anything through the bond. No word of where the resistance is and no sight of _her_. The life of the Supreme Leader is so far a boring burden he has begun to regret grasping, although he wouldn't trust any of the kriffing morons around him to run the show without seriously screwing up the galaxy. Kylo wants order from chaos, a rule of law, and _her_ by his side.

Hux is droning on in that annoying accent of his, eyes bugging out of his head, and spittle flying everywhere as an accent to his screeching demands. Kylo isn't really listening, elbow bent on the arm rest, chin resting on his gloved fist, and he just looks slightly through Hux at the wall beyond so he doesn't have to focus on the annoying ginger madman. Kylo's been back in the old outfit, sans the helmet, since the day after Crait, and it's never felt so constricting.

His mind isn't really there as Hux continues to prattle, and as he looks at the chronometer on the wall he calculates it's now been six standard weeks, four days, 11 hours and 34 minutes since she closed the door, and then he _feels_ something. Amusement? Perhaps a tiny bit of fear? Definitely excitement.

Kylo raises his hand to cut Hux off mid sentence, and when Hux tries to continue Kylo ever so slightly twitches the first two fingers of his left hand and _squeezes_ just a little with the Force. Not enough to choke Hux significantly mind you. Just enough to prevent the tireless windbag from continuing. He lets go almost as suddenly, then stands up.

"Thank you Hux. You're all dismissed."

When none of his Council move, Kylo draws his saber from the belt at his waist and narrow his eyes as he ignites it.

"Get out," he growls, hand on the lightsabre at his belt.

As they all file out, he notes it's been six standard weeks, four days, 11 hours and almost 36 minutes. But the _feelings_ he was sensing, which he somehow knows were hers, are no more.

He sits quietly in his large chair and patiently waits for that crack in Rey's walls to let something through again. After another four hours he finally sighs, walks back to his quarters, and spends another sleepless night tossing and turning.

Kylo had always had nightmares. They had plagued Ben Solo, and Snoke's training had been a living nightmare at times, so of course it has continued. But instead of shapeless things, dark horrors, being run through by that green saber…. since Crait Kylo's nightmares have changed.

Some nights he is reliving the throne room, watching Snoke torture her. Each scream from her is a refrain he repeats in his own mind, and he is afraid Snoke is going to kill her. Other nights the memory is a twisted variation, where she kneels before Snoke but becomes the new apprentice and Kylo is tortured in more novel ways each time. Sometimes he just dreams of his hand outstretched, his eyes pleading to her, and she not only refuses to take it but she _laughs_ at him.

For all that those dreams are unpleasant, there are others that are far worse. He used to dream of a darkness beyond the known galaxy, out in the edges of the unknown regions. In the old dreams it called to him, and he would seek it out and learn from it, become the most powerful Force users in existence and _nobody_ would ever hurt him again. But now, those dreams contain Rey. Fighting a dark figure, conquering it sometimes, being destroyed by it in others, but always dying. Other time she doesn't fight the darkness but embraces it, she _becomes_ the darkness, and he weeps in his dream for the loss of her light. Those are the most disturbing.

So by this stage, Kylo is sleeping even less, going without it all together some nights, cutting it short others to spend hours in his private training room fighting endless imaginary enemies, punishing his muscles and trying to exhaust himself so he can just _sleep_.

It was seven standard weeks, three days, two hours and five minutes since that final moment on Crait when Kylo feels the pain in his hand, and feels the irritation. The pain is stinging, like an electrical shock, and his hand _burns_. He pulls off the glove of his right hand, shaking it and staring at it. Kylo's hand is intact, no mark to speak to what he feels, but Kylo's been prodded with shock sticks in training and he _knows_ what an electrical burn feels like. And this _emotion_. Irritation, and embarrassment. And then a rush of sound in his ears.

"No I'm fine, really. I should have known better, I was careless."

Kylo turns around, cape swishing, looking for her. That was definitely her voice. He'd know it anywhere. But she's not here, of course she's not. And the bond is closed again.

It's seven standard weeks, four days, ten hours and 37 minutes since Crait and he is hiding in his TIE Silencer, debating just taking off and hunting for her himself, maybe dragging her back or maybe disappearing with her into the unknown regions. Maybe they'll just fight to the death this time. He'll let her run him through so he doesn't have to hurt anymore. Or maybe he'll just fly into the nearest star, he doubts anyone will miss him.

Suddenly, the bond opens. He's not only feeling a shadow of her emotions, he can hear her rapid breathing, and he can _see_ her.

She's crouched down somewhere, blaster in one hand, staff in the other and she's looking off to one side like she's peering around something, partly hiding. And she's absolutely filthy, like she's rolled around in a mudheap then buried herself in a garbage pile for good measure, and she's clearly hiding from something. Or someone. She doesn't feel too worried though. The primary sensation he's feeling is anticipation, and a sense of determination. She's waiting for something to happen and has task she needs to complete. Then she is distracted as she notices him. She stares at him for a moment, narrowing her eyes.

"Not a good time," she hisses, and slams the bond closed again.

But instead of his morbid thoughts, that brief connection has left him feeling.... hopeful.

Kylo had been hoping the bond would open again after that. Perhaps she would let him explain, that he still wanted her to join him. After another two weeks he began to think the bond was shut permanently again.

There's a standing order for intel on the Resistance, and Kylo will pay good money for good information. Now, he has doubled the price but still there's been nothing much of note, a whisper of her and FN-2187 seen at a market in Brentaal IV, meeting with someone. Reports of the Falcon setting down on Dantooine, although when a squadron was sent there was no sign of them.

So nine standard weeks almost to the very minute, Kylo isn't expecting much from the report when the datapad is handed to him, despite a strange _feeling_ in the Force.

Surveilance footage of a figure in dirty white pants and wraps, with a staff in her hands, alone at the edge of Rattataki Village on Rattatak and heading off west.

West of Rattataki Village there's a small First Order military outpost.

Something jogged Kylo's memory. Something Hux had been complaining incessantly about at a recent briefing until Kylo had shut him up.

Kylo rolls the thought around in his mind, and then remembers. The outpost had a delivery of droid parts about a week and a half prior. The locals aren't very friendly, and not above demonstrating it, and Hux had wanted to take a few squadrons to Rattaki village and shot everyone after more than half the delivery was pilfered. Two troopers are also missing. Kylo had refused, and pointed out in a rather bored way that the theft was more a demonstration of the incompetence of the officers and stormtroopers stationed there, and by extension Hux who ran the stormtrooper program. Theres the added suggestion that missing troopers are to blame, and Hux had looked mortally offended to Kylo's secret delight. They were _droid parts_ after all anyway Kylo ultimately dismissed the theft. Hardly top secret information or superweapon plans. 

Kylo had been to Rattataki village, and had taken the road to the outpost. _And the road was rough, old reclaimed swamp land that turned into thick soupy mud when it rained_. Rey had been filthy when he saw her. And it was currently the rainy season.

The surveillance footage of the time period between delivery until theft was missing, but Kylo had some of the best engineers and computer slicers money could buy. After three days, they had been able to recover footage, although only section of the bunker where the delivery of parts was stored. But he had a couple of feeds from the hallway either side of the room, the door itself, sweet Force be praised a camera in the storeroom that focussed directly on the crate of parts itself.

Kylo ordered everyone out of the conference room, took off his gloves, and sat down to watch the show. The four datapads each ran a different feed, and ran at the same timepoints.

There was nothing to see for a few minutes, and Kylo became tense.... and then he saw it. The resolution in the hallway feeds was not good enough for detail, and theres no sound, but it was definitely her.

She looked just as she did when the bond had opened seven standard weeks, four days, ten hours and 37 minutes since Crait. Her clothes must have been white at some point, hardly a practical colour for the current environment, but ideal for a desert dweller. Now, she was head to toe filthy, covered in splattered mud that had dried and crusted. She was crouched down at the junction of two hallways, and she was craning her neck to the right trying to see the path around her. Suddenly she pulled her head back around as if she had seen something near her, and he could see a shake of her head as if she was talking to someone for a moment. 

Two Stormtroopers are stationed near the door, but their backs are turned to her looking the other way down the hall. She looked around the wall at them, her blaster cocked and her staff readied, and then she seemed to relax suddenly. The blaster was holstered, staff settled across her back, and she simply.... _sauntered out to meet them_. She tapped one trooper on the shoulder, and they turn turn to her, blasters ready. Bu she has one hand is raised as she speaks, and they both drop their weapons. The hand remains up for a few moments, then as she drops the troopers escort her to the door.

At this point, Kylo's eyes move to another datapad, the one in front of the door. The resolution hear is excellent, and he taps an icon on the screen to play the audio too. 

"We're so glad you came," one stormtrooper says in a strange monotone. "It's good that you're here".

"This way miss," the other says, opening the door for her and escorting her inside.

"Thank you."

And Kylo swallows thickly as he hears her voice. It does.... things to him. Uncomfortable things, and he has to shift in his seat.

The troopers footsteps are loud, but her feet pad almost silently. Kylo had to switch to the datapad playing the feed from the crate itself, and he remembered to enable the sound again.

He can hear the troopers approaching before they are seen, and she is as ever almost silent by comparison. The feed is from overhead, and first Kylo sees feet. There is quick view of the front of helmets, her face half hidden from his view as they approach, and then he is looking at the top of her head, now the back of the group. He idly notes a few stray twigs in her hair, matted and filthy, but one Stormtrooper has a hand to the small of her back as he guides her and Kylo is _enraged_ that someone would _dare to touch her_. They stopped, and the troopers moved one on either side of the large crate that is more than half the height of Rey, lifting up the lid and setting it down on the floor behind them.

"This is the shipment you're looking for" the one to Rey's right intones.

"It is good you found it," intones the other.

Kylo could hear her take a deep breathe in, and she stepped forward to look in to the crate. She clasped her hands together with a delighted squeal.

"Thank you", Rey breathed, and she turned around for a moment to lean against the crate as the troopers came to stand in front of her.

Kylo could see her wide eyed delight. And then her look became cunning as she side eyes the trooper. Kylo could almost hear her thinking. There's only so much she can carry out by herself, but with some help....

Rey turned back to the crate and began to shift through the parts. Just as she had back on Jakku, Kylo realises she is picking through them to scavenge the most valuable ones. She has sent the troopers off to gather some backpacks and a smaller crate, and she shovels into them all the pieces she wants.

Eventually Rey couldn't fit anything else in, and sighed mournfully as she turned around again and Kylo could see her face. She puffed a stray strand of hair out of her face, and hefted her carrying sack across the front of her body. She grabbed her staff from its position on her back, shrugged on a backpack, then picked up a second one to settle it off her right shoulder with the staff in her left arm. Kylo was surprised at how easily she seemed to shoulder these loads, the parts surely are not an insignificant weight.

"Pick those up please"

And the troopers now shrug on larger backpacks on, and after sliding the lid on the smaller crate they pick it up between them by the carry handles.

"You will escort me off the facility and ensure my safe passage," Rey commands. :"You will carry these to my ship for me."

Kylo, watching her face on the feed, found he had one hand reaching out as if to touch the image of her face on the datapad. He shook his head, and curled his hand back into his lap.

The troopers followed Rey in a march as they left the room. He watched the top of her hair, the back of her as she passed under the camera, and then jumped back to the feed of the door to see her smiling contentedly as they continue out to the hallway. 

Theres no sign of anyone following them, and Kylo noted that the feed shows its the middle of the third shift. It's anticlimactic, but then he'd have been told if she'd been caught so he wasn't expecting a dramatic ending. Doesn't answer the obvious question - who scrubbed the surveillance footage - but as far as he is aware Rey hasn't been captured and he's almost certain he'd know through the bond if not reported by his forces.

Kylo watched the video again. Then a third time. He was slightly disappointed at the end of each that she didn't just step out from the datapad into the room with him.

Finally, he sighed and pulled all the pads together. These are the evidence of her crime, and Hux would very much enjoy having her charged and chased across the galaxy for such a relatively petty crime. Kylo wanted to keep them for himself, so he could watch her again and again. Her abilities were impressive, suggestive notions in the Force are usually fleeting and difficult to maintain for long, but Rey had those troopers following her as if they were pets with what seemed no effort at all. 

Hux can't be allowed to see these recordings. Kylo knows it, and he needs to get rid of them. He knows what to do. Even Hux is afraid of Kylo's rages, but Kylo hasn't had an outburst since Crait, and based on past history he's well overdue. Bizarrely he _likes_ this conference table, and it seems a waste to destroy it, but he puts the datapads in the centre and pulls out his saber.

Kylo finds unprovoked rage difficult, so he takes a deep breath and recalls Rey refusing his hand. He seethes at the memory, especially when he recalls the look of longing in her eyes and how she had _almost_ accepted him. In a moment of clarity he realises she said no because he wouldn't help her save her friends. But if she had only said yes he would have done it for her. He knows he would have. And then the rage is there - rage at his loss, rage at the Force, but the most powerful rage Kylo has ever felt has been his own self hatred - and he ignites his saber

In seconds, the datapads were a melted memory and that nice table was a pile of smoking rubble. For good measure Kylo's also destroyed the chairs, one of the walls, and the lightfitting overhead. He stalked out of the conference room, and as he turned at the end of the hallway he can hear Hux losing it.

"What the _Kriff!"_

Kylo just wanted to destroy something else, but he forced down his rage into a small simmering ball, and locked it away.

In his quarters, Kylo was pacing up and down trying to keep that rage in place. He _missed_ her. Those moments in the throne room he had felt at peace, despite the fact they were fighting for their lives. They had worked as one, they seemed to actually _be_ one. One entity, one unit in the Force. He stopped pacing for a moment, felt he was grasping towards something important. 

A pair.

The bond had been different since the throne room, but that was because Rey had shut him out.

Snoke couldn't have bonded them, because surely the bond would be gone now his influence was.

And their first meeting, somehow the two of them had recognised each other. Could the bond be even older than he had thought? He had often dreamed of a bright light, so bright it hid the face of someone. It had been a small child at first, then as time progessed the figure grew taller, older, into a girl. But he had stopped dreaming of her when he found Snoke.

Kylo suddenly found he wasn't angry. This new feeling was... wonder. He needed to do some research, find out more about Force bonds.

He was shaken from his reverie by a rushing sound and a strange pop that had previously signalled the bond opening.

"What do you want this time Kylo," Rey asked tiredly. She was sitting on the floor, arms behind her, leaning back tiredly, as she looked up at him with tired eyes. There were dark circles under her eyes, and she looked like she had lost weight.

Kylo knelt in front of her. He wanted to reach out and touch her, but he was afraid.

"Are you well," he asked instead. "You look tired. And hungry"

Rey surveyed his face, noting the stubble along his jaw, sweat soaked hair, and his own dark circles.

"No more tired than you I suppose. And I eat... I'm just training hard."

He was surprised she was even talking to him, let alone being relatively pleasant. He sat himself more comfortably on the floor, cross legged in front of her.

"Where are you Rey."

She rolled her eyes and gave him a cool look.

"And here I was thinking we could just be nice to each other for a moment. You know I can't tell you where I am."

He just nodded, and for a while they said nothing. Both were wondering why the Force had decided to connect them right now, in this moment, but neither voiced their thoughts.

"I know where you've been though," Kylo said suddenly. She just arched one eyebrow as if to say _oh really?_

"Rattataki.", Kylo whispered, pleased at the surprised look on her face. "At a First Order facility. Did you think I wouldn't find out you've been _scavenging_ from me?"

She didn't say anything, but he could see her anger at the implied insult. He'd called her that before... _scavenger_ , but meant as an insult. But she relaxed a little when he smiled at her

"Actually I was quite impressed. But I do have to ask, how did you manage to scramble the feeds? I paid a lot of money to some disreputable slicers to recover it. It made for entertaining viewing."

"Ran into an officer on the way out," Rey answered, and when he gave her a questioning look she elaborated. "He was even more weak minded than the storm troopers."

"Ah.. well Hux does seem to surround himself with fools. So scavenger... was it a good haul?"

"Passing. Was able to make a few necessary repairs, sold the rest. Doesn't go far with so many mouths to feed. You're not angry?"

Kylo thought about it for a moment. He _was_ angry, but not about the theft. Easily replaced, and hardly the crime of the century whatever Hux might think. No, he was angry that whilst they were sitting here, in his quarters, _right next to his bed_ of all things, they were separated by who knows how many light years and his hurtful words to her. They were supposed to be together, but instead what they were right now was a shadow of the Force's intention.

"About you scavenging from us? No. I even destroyed the evidence. It's not like what you took was valuable to me."

 _And you are valuable to me_ he thought. 

"Oh..... Well then Ben, if you don't seem to have a problem with it, I might just _scavenge_ a few things from time to time. Girls' gotta eat after all."

He chuckled then as the bond closed, and just sat there for a while, pretending she was still there.

Twelve standard weeks, 2 days, 11 hours, 43 minutes and some spare change after Crait, Kylo is standing in the rain at the edge of the Rattataki village, right where he thinks Rey's image was captured before she headed off to the outpost. He's on a pilgrimage of sorts, to walk the path she did and see where she boldly walked in and took what she wanted. And maybe scare the kriff out of the officers who let her do it. But something in the Force is rooting him to this spot, and he is somehow compelled to turn to look to the small tavern. Out the front, under the overhanging roof on a small verander, two men sit drinking ale. By their build and the expressions, he can see they are military men, or at least have been. They are smiling however, and Ben can see each has a small segment of fabric tied around one wrist. The fabric is wispy, delicate, and undeniably he has seen it worn on Rey - small fragments of a wrap. He wonders if she left it for him to find, if she knew all along he would know what she had done. For these two are undeniably Rey's troopers.


End file.
